Quite a few people in our group were needing Pepto Bismol in the morning, not quite sure if it was the dinner at the bedouin camp or the sack lunch after Petra, but we started calling it the “Wadi runs.” We visited some Roman Ruins at the Citadel and found out that the Greeks used to call Amman Philadelphia. We had a brief shopping outing, walking around downtown. We had a fancy lunch with strawberry drink with a texture almost like jam.
We had a brief shopping outing, walking around downtown. We had a fancy lunch with strawberry drink with a texture almost like jam.
We had an enjoyable business visit to Aramex—they do shipping worldwide—partnering with UPS and Amazon. It was interesting to hear about their rapid growth, as well as challenges of operating in this part of the world.
We got explore Jerash—where there are tons of Roman and Greek ruins from as far back as 5500 BC. Among other things, there were big theaters, temples to Zeus and Artemis, and a hippodrome.
Sarah and I walked to the Boulevard mall for dinner.
We drove to Bethany, the site of Jesus’s baptism based on the ruins of three churches found there (in the middle of nowhere), barely a puddle of water right now, walked further to the Jordan River (opposite side of the river from our visit in Israel in 2017)–it was pretty muddy.
From there we drove to a Dead Sea resort hotel. It was nice to have a place to change clothes, have showers, towels, and lunch. People enjoyed the mud and floating, also fun times in the pool—especially the water slide.
After lunch we drove to Mt Nebo where people think Moses was buried, great view (on a clear day) all the way to the Red Sea. Nice ancient mosaics. The artist was told about some African animals, but hadn’t actually seen a giraffe (as you can tell by his depiction). We visited a shop where disabled people make mosaics including a “Lehi’s Dream” mosaic.
We had a farewell dinner–a fancy traditional Ramadan feast at Karam Beirut. There was way too much food, lots and lots of plates of dishes.
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